The Teacher as Student

I love teaching yoga! I love helping people feel better physically in their bodies and minds. It's rewarding work and hard work, but it's worth it to see people come out of my classes feeling and looking more calm and balanced than when they went in. But part of being a good teacher, is staying a student at heart. As teachers, it's easy to think that once we take our teacher training that it's over...we know it all and can do it all. But this is clearly not so. Completing a teacher training is just the tip of the iceburg.

I hope you can appreciate that it's much different on the other side of the mat when you are teaching as opposed to participating in a class. But we are privileged in this community to have so many yoga studios available. My schedule is so crazy that I sometimes don't have the time to take a class, but for the last 2 weeks I've taken classes, a hot yoga class and an Anusara inspired Vinyasa class. I had to put at least one class in no matter how tired or busy I was.

It was so beautiful to be a student and absorb the asanas and appreciate the varying techniques of my fellow teachers. So for me, to be a proficient teacher and keep learning, I must always stay a student. To bring this sense of excitement, newness and learning to my classes is something I always strive for and it's a lesson for me to never rest on my laurels or take this practice for granted. So thank you to Amber and Gloria.

If you haven't tried a yoga class yet, maybe it's time to start. Spring is just around the corner and you can almost smell the newness of life in the air. Why not celebrate that, by taking a yoga class. Radiant Fitness is adding more yoga classes, so check out our schedule for March.

http://www.radiantfitness.com/

Namaste,

Susan

Breath Body

We know that the human body is an intelligent complex system incorporating physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual elements, but in yoga they break the body down even further. One of those "bodies" or sheaths, is the breath body or Prana-maya-Kosha.

Prana means energy, life force or vitality and in yoga in can be reached through our breathing practices. That's why we as yoga teachers harp about the breath. Over and over you will hear us reminding you to "breathe", or "activate ujayi breathing", or "find your ocean breath", etc, because we know that is through the breath that we can tap into this powerful prana.

Prana resides in all of us. Don't believe me? When you are feeling good in your life, happy, peaceful, grounded, and at your optimal health your prana, that energy, is at its peak and all the energy systems inside you are balanced and running smoothly. Now tell me how you feel when you have a head cold or are depressed, stressed, or just feel out of sorts. This is when your prana, that vitality, is being leached out of you. So, now you have to work at plugging up the holes to protect that energy from draining further. Is there a time when you won't have any prana at all? Yes, and this is at death. Prana enters us at birth and leaves us at death.

So prana is a very tangible thing. You can feel it in your body; you can feel it when you practice breathing techniques when you exercise, or when you embrace someone or offer kindness. You may not understand it fully, but you know it's there. So when you practice yoga in a class, maybe my class, and you hear me say over and over to breathe deep, breathe fully, you'll know why I am saying it. Because it's the breath that is key and it's the breath that will help you tap into and incorporate this beautiful and powerful energy into our lives.

Developing a Practice of Gratitude

How often do you say thank you? How often do you express gratitude for all of the beauty and blessings in your life? When things are so rough out there, we need to take the time to find something we are grateful for. What does this do? It begins to shift the negative energy we've got built up in our lives and it does something miraculous....it transforms it into positive energy.

In your yoga practice you may feel restricted in what your body can do, but be grateful that you have this body than can, say fold forward, even if you can't touch your toes. Be grateful for the breath that moves in and out smoothly so you can flow from one pose to another. That's huge. Ever try doing yoga with a head cold? Ahhh...now you are grateful for your breath.

This week start a gratitude journal and start with one or two things, even if they seem inconsequential, like I'm grateful I have warm socks or lotion-infused tissues. What seems small to you, could be the biggest thing to someone else. We used to say grace after each meal. Let's bring grace back into our lives at every turn. Write your list and watch it grow and change and observe how your mental space and heart grows and changes.

Namaste,

Susan